La amenaza de Andrómeda

Robert Wise is an under rated director but in his body of work are such gems as 'The Body Snatcher', 'The Set-Up', 'The Day the Earth Stood Still', 'Odds Against Tomorrow', 'The Haunting', 'West Side Story', 'I Want to Live!' and on its own terms, 'The Sound of Music'. He managed to make genre films more interesting and watchable than other more celebrated directors.

'The Andromeda Strain' is an engrossing film from beginning to end. It is science fiction, alien virus comes to earth type thing, but has more depth than just that. The scientists, played very well by Arthur Hill, David Wayne, Kate Reid and James Olson, are fallible and have real emotions. Yet in them is a longing to know, to discover, to solve. Most popular cinema celebrate the fist or the gun but part of the excitement of this film is the use of the intellect to tackle the problem. Brains and not brawn is key.

The early scenes in the town of Piedmont are fascinating. Nothing dramatic, only small details adding up to a large tragedy. Restrained film making is not common but in this case it is really effective. After these scenes the film moves on as fear and wonder grip the scientists to a satisfying conclusion.

The electronic music is just right, the sets are atmospheric, the hard ware plausible and the photography simple and effective. A mention should be made of Paula Kelly as a nurse, an excellent actor and shamefully under used in films. (She is great in 'Sweet Charity' too.)In a supporting role she gives an intelligent, spirited performance.

A near perfect film. Hopefully no one will re-make it.

There's an echo of 2001 and a foreshadowing of The Parallax View in this paranoiac sci-fi drama. The movie delights in presenting the tools of science and questions the direction and authority of those elected or selected to preserve us. The pacing strikes modern audiences as slow - it is - but that's the film's greatest success: suspensefully unfolding at a snail's pace. Some of the dialog is stilted and some points are far too belabored (the scene where Dr. Mark Hall, James Olson, is instructed on the use of his key is a tedious overplaying of the moment). The cast do what they can with dialog that sounded a little trite and predictable in its day and sadly is the main thing that mars an otherwise hypnotic journey into the dangers of modern governments and modern science. At the film's core, however, is a lesson that bears repeating, lest we forget.

Within the logic confines of the Cold War and the eternal quest for the upper hand in annihilation, space becomes a frontier for seeking the next new biological weapon. When a US satellite crash-lands in a remote town of Piedmont in New Mexico a sudden outbreak of a cosmic threat causes almost the entire town to die in mid-step. The terrifying reality of an uncontrollable epidemic initiates a clandestine Wildfire project, where the finest scientific minds are whisked away to a secure underground facility with state of the art technology and a self-detonating nuclear device set to explode to prevent any potential outbreak. The project itself was formed by a group of prominent scientists led by Dr. Jeremy Stone (Arthur Hill) specifically for this eventuality: to counterattack any extraterrestial form of life, that could cause a deadly epidemic. Together with fellow scientists Charles Dutton (David Wayne), Ruth Leavitt (Kate Reid) and Mark Hall (James Olson) they descend into the facility, where they attempt to isolate the new life form and diagnose the two survivors of Piedmont: an crackpot drunkard and a helpless infant.

Transcending into Robert Wise's feature is a prolonged pay-off, mostly focused on the procedural side of such a scenario, slowly building the story and only about midway do we finally get down to actually finding out what the titular Andromeda strain is, which in turn leads to an intense and riveting finale. Meanwhile however we snail downward the facility with five separate levels - each with scenes of progressive sterilisation. The journey to the heart of the facility, where the nitty gritty essence of the research starts, is essentially tedious, albeit serving its purpose of setting up the final act and acknowledging the relapsed tension that such an occurrence would create. Although the fate of the world being at hand, the road to salvation is slow, meticulous and affords no space for a misstep. Despite the slow unwinding there is also little in the way of character development, possibly only Kate Reid's cantankerous Ruth offering a stronger imprint on proceedings, which are otherwise dominated by the science and the crawling Armageddon.

Midway the lethargic pacing stalled my interest, but once the story unfolds all the pieces fall into place delivering a high-tempo ending within this otherwise sedentary movie. Coupled with arguably the most exact scientific jargon in sci-fi features history and a overall believable background (despite some ridiculous mumbo-jumbo by one of the scientists about the possibility of microorganisms being sentient) delivers a sombre piece that can bore most, but will engage those who offer the movie their mind and body.

And yet, you just can't help yourself. Under Robert Wise's direction, this tale of microbiological Armageddon unfolds with such perfectly metered suspense that by the 100th viewing, you STILL find yourself glued to your couch. You HAVE to see how it turns out, even though you already know.

Although the film is well over 20 years old, and the computer equipment at the Wildfire laboratory shows its age, this is a perfect change-of-pace film for any movie monster fan. Heck, you've probably already let your kids see the bloody carnage in "Jurassic Park" anyway.

Instead of the usual radioactive mutated towering apparition that flattens cities and topples skyscrapers, the monster in "The Andromeda Strain" is so tiny, it takes powerful electron microscopes to see it. The average movie monster can only cause damage wherever he can stomp, smash or exhale a blast of fiery breath. Andromeda has the potential to be carried to every corner of the world by the winds, where it could conceivably wipe out all life. Try to top THAT, Godzilla!

The real star of the film is Wildfire itself. A government facility located (we thought) safely away from populated areas, it bristles with everything a microbiologist needs to avert a biological disaster. . .or does it?

Seeking an unprecedented realism, director Robert Wise insisted that everything on the set be real, from the computer terminals (with their quaint light pens) all the way to the electron microscopes. The Wildfire set is every microbiologist's dream come true and it's populated by a quartet of actors!

Since the presence of a big-name star might blunt the impact of this high-tech visual feast, Wise carefully assembled a cast of fine actors who just don't happen to be household names. Without rehashing the characterizations, we'll just say that Arthur Hill, David Wayne, James Olson and Kate Reid couldn't possibly have been more perfect for their roles. With a less competent cast, "The Andromeda Strain" could have degenerated into a parody of itself. This is gritty work, saving the world from biological annihilation. It takes real ACTORS, not just pretty-boy movie stars!

Go ahead. Be scared out of your wits by something so tiny, you can't even see it. I dare you to try and get up before it's over.

A satellite from the SCOOP project has crashed into the desert town of Piedmont, the SCOOP project basically entails that the satellite scoops outer space for any alien micro-organisms. After the crash all the residents of Piedmont are killed with the exception of a baby and an old gentleman booze hound. Mankind is on the verge of being destroyed by a leaked alien virus, so a crack team of scientists are gathered in the hope of containing and understanding the virus before the world gets devoid of human life!

Taken from the novel by Michael Crichton, this film is a wonderful lesson in tension building as we follow the scientists through a carefully structured sci-fi plot that will eventually become a race against time thriller. What makes The Andromeda Strain stand out against other genre pieces is the astute and believable approach to the subject matter, we are (in the main) in the presence of proper scientists. There's no super hero tricks forthcoming from these people, these are sensible honest intelligent folk using their combined knowledge to hopefully save the planet? A masterstroke from the makers is that they used largely unknown actors for the film, this gives the story an added grounded believable factor, thus a very useful way of drawing the audience into the drama unfolding. The direction from Robert Wise is very clued in for serio narrative drive, the set design for the underground research facility is top notch, and the actors all give stoic and intelligent performances.

However, it's not without a niggle, for after the excellence of the films first two thirds, it's disappointing to find that the final act reverts to type, which somehow seems misplaced given what the viewer has just been through. Don't get me wrong, it's a fine sequence of events that fuels the dramatic slant, but it comes off as just a bit too glossy in light of the preceding structure. Still, The Andromeda Strain is an intelligent, smart, mature, and knowing film that is standing the test of time for being a great piece of science fiction cinema. 8/10